Moculta Shiraz

Colour

Intense, attractive deep ruby purple.

Nose

Concentrated plum, violets, toasty oak and hints of cinnamon and spice all subtly combine. The nose shows great depth and concentration of fruit, which will be enhanced with further bottle maturation.

Palate

Refined and elegant with deeply concentrated plum and blackberry fruit. The wine shows great depth and drive, with smooth, supple tannins on the finish.

Cellaring

Drinking well on release with fresh fruit and firm fine grain tannin, it will however benefit from further cellar maturation.

With careful cellaring the wine will further complex and soften and begin to show its best in 2-3 years reaching its full potential in about 5 - 6 years.

Vintage

2020

Grape variety breakdown

After harvesting the individual parcels of fruit were vinified in small stainless steel fermenters. This enables careful extraction of the colour and flavour precursors from the grapes during fermentation into the final wine.

The gentle removal of soft natural tannin is carried out by “pumping over “, a process which involves pumping the fermenting grape juice over its own skins. This adds significant mouth feel qualities to the final wine and will enable the wine to live in the bottle over an extended period of time.

The resultant wines were pressed gently using the best air bag membrane pressing technology available. The pressings portion is added back to the final wine at blending time, allowing for accurate development of this soft well-structured Shiraz, attributes that Eden Valley is renowned for.

Maturation of the wine was carried out in new and second use French oak hogsheads over a 12 month period in our cool cellars. Individual barrels were selected from the chosen parcels to form the final blend.

Technical Details

Alcohol: 14.5% | pH: | Acidity: | Volume: mls

Maturation

Eighteen months

Background

The cropping ability of these mature age vines is limited by the terroir and the natural annual growth pattern of the vines, resulting in berries with deeply concentrated flavours. Eden Valley shiraz tends to be more elegant, focussed and aromatic than the blockbuster wines of the neighbouring Barossa Valley. This Krondorf Moculta Shiraz is no exception. Eden Valley saw its first vines planted in 1847. Early plantings of Riesling, Shiraz and Cabernet soon thrived, and the region developed alongside the neighboring Barossa Valley. Rocky, shallow soils prevalent in the region, coupled with the cooler conditions make Eden Valley perfect for growing outstanding Shiraz grapes.Eden Valley sits 34 degrees South of the Equator, at a similar latitude to the neighboring Barossa Valley. The higher elevation of Eden Valley than the Barossa provides cooler conditions, 5-7 degrees lower than the Barossa Valley floor. Final ripening conditions are much cooler and harvest takes place later than the Barossa. The undulating, hilly terrain provides a diverse range of sub-climates, meaning aspect and slope are important factors in vineyard site selection.

Vineyard Notes

Krondorf Moculta Shiraz is produced with fruit sourced from trusted long term grower partners Mick and Diane Koch. Individual parcels from several blocks on their vineyard were vinified separately in small batches and blended just prior to bottling. The individual blocks range from 15 – 30 years of age and are located in the Moculta subregion of Eden Valley.

The 2020 growing season began with above average winter rainfall in 2019 and continued to be drier than the long term average. Spring and Summer rains were significantly below average, and hotter than average temperatures were experienced in December and January. This led to dramatically to lower fruit yields due to smaller berry size. Cooler maximum temperatures in February, coupled with below average minimums proved the saviour of the 2020 vintage. The small crop ripened quickly but evenly, resulting in great flavour development which synchronized with sugar ripeness. Overall, the Eden Valley wine grape crush was down in excess of 50% on the long term average, but quality was exceptional. Shiraz wines produced from the smaller berries of 2020 exhibit great depth of colour, with intense, concentrated varietal fruit flavours.